berserk for knitting

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Just yesterday I ordered Elizabeth Zimmermann’s new book (edited by her grandson, Cully) Knit One Knit All (reviewed by Clara Parkes in Knitter’s Review this morning). It is a collection of EZ’s garter stitch patterns. As I understand it, many of the patterns have not been published before. I am ridiculously excited to see the book, and I hope it’ll give me the kick in the pants to pick up my knitting again.

That’s right, I have not been knitting. My knitting mojo is all wonky. It’s a very odd feeling, having knit pretty much nonstop for the last eight years. I have patterns that have been knit and photographed that I could write up. I have sketches and swatches. I have ideas floating around in my head. But the urge to actually sit down and do any of the work is not there.

But I have been busy with other stuff. Jerry had a birthday. He’s NINE YEARS OLD.

I took advantage of having my Mom visiting for Jerry’s birthday to 1) pick strawberries and 2) make stuff with them.

I made freezer jam and regular jam. We ate a lot of them with shortcake that my Mom made. I froze some whole for smoothies, and I froze some cut and sugared, as recommended by the strawberry farmer himself. Note to self: next year only pick two buckets – three tops – because four buckets was really too many.

The other way I’ve kept myself busy is with house projects. After finally making The Hallway into a space that is useful and pretty, the goal is to fix everything in the entire house, starting with the small and easy-to-handle projects. First up was kitchen curtains. They turned out great, but have a funny way of enhancing the fugliness of the rest of the kitchen.

This fabric came from the quilting cotton section at Joann’s…one of those “exclusively for Joann’s” prints.

Next up was curtains for what we call the Front Room. It’s really the family room, and we spend a lot of time here. Click here for a sort-of before picture – it’s just a picture that happens to have the old curtains in the background. And here are my new DRAPERIES. I am totally in love with these bad boys.

This desk came from the Salvation Army for $20. I’m thinking I’ll paint it white/cream, but that part is still up in the air. I have primed it and I just need to decide on the paint color. It’s going in Jerry’s room with the green chairs. His room also needs to be painted, and we’re considering taking out a wall, or at least part of a wall, and then, and then, and then.

Sadly, I’m just not that into picking up the knitting. I feel bad about it because I miss my knitting! But it also makes me happy to get my house in shape. We’ve lived here for 7 years now; it’s about time!

My friend Denise asked me to get some pictures of her recently finished projects. I was happy to oblige, mostly because it meant Maggie and I could get out of the house for the day and do something different. And ogling Denise’s wonderful knitting is pretty fun, too. Pictured above is her Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz.

I also love the shot of her Ulla’s Scarf by Nancy Bush. It’s very soft and delicate. The scarf, not the picture.

It was really, really nice to take pictures of knitting, considering how infrequently I’ve done that of late! We are still working on the hallway and I hope to be closer to Finished tomorrow after a trip back to Ikea. Here’s what it looked like as of this morning (with obligatory “before” picture):

I will be so happy to get the shelves up and get things organized in there. SO HAPPY. Because right now? All the things that usually live in the hallway are mostly piled all over my bedroom and it is making me crazy! So crazy that I can barely knit. But! After many false starts, I finally nailed down the design for my swap mitten.

And I’m working on my potholders!

Alas, not much to show for either of those projects, but getting started is half the battle, right? Here’s some more pictures of Denise’s knitting. Because focusing on someone else’s FOs sounds like a good plan to me.